


A Historic Moment

by digitalduckie



Series: Falloutverse: The Man in Black [9]
Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Birthday Fluff, Family Feels, Gen, M/M, dubiously canon?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-09
Updated: 2019-05-09
Packaged: 2020-02-16 10:34:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18689752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/digitalduckie/pseuds/digitalduckie
Summary: Redeye thought fireworks were when they'd set stuff on fire at the end of the day.





	A Historic Moment

**Author's Note:**

> I can't vouch for how canon I'd consider this in my stories and it also happens way later so consider this something of an intermission? Bonus material? Idk. I just wanted to do something for the official unofficial Redeye Day as determined by @catastrotaffy (May 9, Andrew WK's birthday). I figured I should do something nice for Redeye for once so here we go!

Most nights were worth a party in Redeye’s opinion. And most raiders held a similar opinion though Nuka World was now more heavily populated with mercenaries and freelancing workers, crews hired on to retake and reestablish a presence in the parks. While their chem use and drinking habits were less predictable than the raider gangs of previous, it seemed a universal agreement that tonight was worth celebrating. There was a buzzing energy throughout the streets as people began to congregate in their chosen waiting spots, anticipation ringing clear in their laughter and chatter.

Even from several, or more, stories up at the top of King Cola’s Castle, Redeye could hear the particularly raucous ones. When the sound would bounce off the cobblestone and plaster just right, echoing its way up to where he was told to wait. Yet despite the cheer below, he found himself disenchanted as he looked out over the parks. He could just make out the shape of the false mountains at the far end of Dry Rock Gulch, dark masses against an ever so slightly darker backdrop, telling only in that they lacked the field of stars the sky held. The fact the park couldn’t dredge up bad memories was a bad enough memory itself, but he couldn’t help but steal peeks in its direction, eager for signs of what might be occurring at the power plant beyond.

Royce had put together teams to tackle clearing the plant out, then some more specialized ones to get it working, and finally a small crew trusted enough to actually turn the damn thing on for the first time in over two hundred years. It had been a goal of virtually every gang who had tried to take the parks for their own, and here they were on the verge of success. But Redeye hadn’t been invited to help. Sure he’d been dragged along to stave off the feral ghoul infestation within. He’d even helped some with making sure that what needed to work was even in working condition. But for the big flip of the switch? The Overboss didn’t seem interested in having him there even for company.

“You’re not needed there.”

“Okay, sure. But what if I was? Just… because?”

“How about you take my key and go up to the top of the castle? It’ll be a nice view.”

Redeye sighed deeply, puttering the air out between his lips. He almost missed the ding of the elevator inside the castle and turned about just in time to catch Ricky cautiously making his way out onto the wall-walk.

“Hey, what are you doing here?” Redeye looked his brother up and down. He didn’t leave Nuka Town often, certainly not unaccompanied.

“I thought maybe you shouldn’t be alone.” Ricky pushed his glasses up as he joined Redeye at the edge. “It’s a big night, after all.”

The soft smile Ricky gave was surreal. The two shared the same face, but wore it differently. Ricky was kind, practically naive, and if Redeye was honest, a wuss. But he was smart in his own way, quick to pick up on things. Useful things. Redeye wasn’t sure how much of that was programming and how much of it was… organic. He shook the thought from his mind.

“I should be at the power plant with ‘em.”

“Honestly?”

“Well, yeah!” Redeye scowled. “I’ve been here longer than any of these other assholes! Even longer than Royce and he’s the Overboss. I should be throwing that switch myself.”

It wasn’t true. Royce had worked and fought hard for that right. But Redeye couldn’t choke back the growing bitterness that clawed its way up his throat.

“Ah, yeah, well…” Ricky cleared his throat. “It should be a nice view from up here when they get it going at least. And then maybe we can toast to your birthday.”

“What?”

“Your birthday?” The two stared at each other as Redeye processed the thought, mentally flipping through a calendar to confirm that it was indeed May 9. It was visible enough that it made Ricky laugh though he stopped quickly.

“Shit!”

“I’m sorry, Dub, but that’s why I’m here. I thought you were upset because maybe Royce forgot or I guess never cared in the first place. You can’t hardly tell with him. But-” he laughed again, “I suppose you forgot it yourself. You have been busy.”

Redeye groaned, burying his face against the castle’s wall, and running his hands back through his hair. He’d spent years inviting raiders to parties, claiming the crowded bar spaces of Cappy’s Cafe or even the Combat Zone were there to celebrate him. He never missed a year until Nuka World had fallen to the Minutemen and he spent time roaming the wasteland before the parks drew him back in. When had his focus deviated so far from his self?

“What’s the point?” he muttered after some silence.

“Uh, it’s just a nice thing to celebrate. Another year older, another year survived? It’s nice to feel human even in the small ways.” Ricky patted his brother’s arm.

“Do we even have a birthday? I mean, technically?” Redeye peeked up from his lamenting posture. Since he had stared down the truth of what he might be, he hadn’t considered all the small mundane ways it would impact how he saw himself. It seemed that just as he would get comfortable with the idea, he’d round a corner and something new would crop up. Details he would never have realized would be an issue until they simply were.

“I guess it’s more like a creation date?” Ricky stuck out his lower lip in thought, once again a surreal expression given that it wasn’t one Redeye was prone to making for himself. He furrowed his brow.

“Wouldn’t it be your birthday, too?”

“Ah! No. Well, I think for the sake of consistency, we all shared a birthday at one point.” Sometimes it seemed the Railroad did some shoddy work with the false memories they created, but maybe they weren’t so dumb as to have let all three of the brothers recall different birth dates for themselves. “Neo and I were made closer together than you. So, technically, my birthday was a couple of weeks ago.”

“And you said nothing?”

Ricky shrugged. “Maybe forgetting about it is one of the things we have in common. And maybe I wasn’t sure you would care much.”

“You’re my brother! Of course I’d give a shit!” Redeye’s indignant reaction brought another smile to Ricky’s face.

“Thanks, Dub. I love you, too.”

“D-Don’t go putting that word in my mouth!” Redeye sat up quickly and waved a hand about. “I just care about you. Can’t not care about your twin brother especially when you’ve gone through all sorts of weird shit together.”

“Yeah. Happy birthday, little brother.”

“You, too. Happy birthday, Ricky.”

As Redeye turned his attention back to the horizon, he noticed pinpricks of lights where they hadn’t been. Rapidly they were followed by more and more, approaching closer and flooding the Galactic Zone, Dry Rock Gulch, and Safari Adventure until he could hear a humming crescendo. Several loud clunking noises immediately preceded the lights of Kiddie Kingdom as they came on, individual grids clicking in for various sections one after the other. A quick look to the north and he could see portions of the bottling plant lit up, and to the south Nuka Town was golden. Some of the path lighting between the parks cast halos onto the grounds below, startling critters back into darkness. Redeye had seen large settlements, cities lit up with candle light or even fancier electricity before, but nothing compared to the scale of the parks. It was almost easy to forget just how large and sprawling the entire thing was and he briefly wondered how any of the raider gangs had ever expected to take the entire place for themselves. The fact that Royce had gotten so much of it under his control was absolutely an astounding feat worthy of stories along the lines of the legendary raider, Atlas. He found his heart swelling with excitement and triumph, grabbing Ricky by the shoulders and shaking him enthusiastically.

“Hell yeah! It’s on!”

No sooner had he started whooping victoriously, then had a loud boom and crackle went off overhead. Redeye forced Ricky down, pressing both his brother and himself down tight against the floor of the wall-walk, hands over their heads. Every roar of thunder shook Redeye to the core, like standing too close to an amp dialed up, yet that’s all that rumbled. The castle felt still and he couldn’t hear the chaos of the birth of rubble and debris, no cries for backup from the crowds below. Yet he remained pressed to the floor for what felt like hours before Ricky shook Redeye’s arm, forcing him to open his eyes.

“Look, Dub! Look! It’s okay. In fact, it’s beautiful.” Ricky sat, gaze turned up toward the sky as bursts of fireworks went off, glittering in brilliant colors and patterns before fizzling away to be replaced by new bursts. Redeye pushed himself up and watched with jaw slack for a moment before standing to see that each park was experiencing its own show.

\---------------------------------

The fireworks had faded and the ache in Redeye’s heart left with them. After Ricky had excused himself for the night, Redeye found himself strumming his guitar, improvising a tune undoubtedly inspired by the special occasion of the evening. Notes would ring out loud and strong before he would tone them down, fading them into something gentler before another strong burst. Maybe it wasn’t the best he had ever written, but it let him experience the sensation of the fireworks if only in an abstract manner.

It was during a gentle stretch when the familiar scent of cigarette smoke wafted his way and the tune he played shifted. When Royce was around, Redeye had a tendency to play something darker. It wasn’t ominous, but it suited the man. A song he was most tolerant of listening to.

“Looks like everything went as planned, huh?” Redeye grinned.

“Naturally.” Royce remained oddly stoic. Perhaps in the main control room he had grinned from ear to ear, dimples in his cheeks with near maniacal laughter at the accomplishment. It’s not as though he was unable to emote, but the immediate moment had passed and he’d brought himself back down to Earth.

“You know, it’s the perfect day to celebrate. Easy to remember and all.”

“How do you figure that?” Pulling his coat tighter around his neck against a cool breeze, Royce joined Redeye’s side.

“It’s only the greatest day of the year, that’s how. It’s my birthday!” He paraded a smug air of pride in front of the other man though truth be told it was a curtain. Thinly veiled, but a curtain nonetheless. Both of them had a tendency to feign arrogance to hide uncertainty. Royce was better at it however.

“I know.” A lot better.

“You do?” Redeye stopped strumming, focus entirely on the shorter man.

“The first May I was here, you wouldn’t shut up about it. So how could I forget?” It had been one of a handful of occasions where the Overboss had mingled freely and casually among the raiders. Had he actually been celebrating Redeye’s birthday with them or had it just been an excuse to have some drinks? Redeye had never been certain before.

“Oh.” What could he say to that? “Cool. Thanks for remembering.”

He wanted to slap himself. Doubly so as Royce stared blankly at him. The two had been as much a couple as Royce would allow for years now and Redeye still found himself feeling and acting like an awkward teenager around him. Constantly. One day the man was going to stop holding so many secrets, turning up so many surprises. He would cease to be such a mystery. But then, maybe Redeye didn’t want that to stop.

“I figured you would appreciate the sentiment.” Royce raised an eyebrow.

“Are you… trying to say I turn you on?” Redeye squinted before stroking his chin.

“As valid an observation as that typically is,” he put a hand up to discourage continued victorious lechery, “I mean I assumed you would have been pleased to have fireworks for your birthday.”

“That was a gift?”

“Not exactly the word I would use.”

“What would you use?”

“Convenience. Think of it as killing two birds with one stone.” And the mystery continued. Just how much did he mean to Royce?

“I like the idea of it as a gift better.” It was one of only two he’d ever received from the Overboss. The guitar he slipped over his back and now this.

“Of course you would. Everything is about Russell.” Royce stubbed out his cigarette against the castle wall, a look of amusement on his face.

“No. Everything is about Royce.” Redeye mocked, taking the other man by the hips to pull him into a kiss.


End file.
